Well, some of them did. Britney Spears and L.A. Reid named the singer as their choice for elimination right away, but Simon Cowell tried to get her mentor Demi Lovato to choose between her contestants before he weighed in. After Demi voted to keep Jennel, Simon cast the deciding vote in Paige’s favor.

Jennel reacted to her elimination as we’d predict — emotionally and tearfully. It was hard to tell whether she or Demi was more upset by her leaving the show. On a media conference call, Jennel explained why she believes she was cut.

“The vocal coaches have told me i was the strongest on Demi’s team,” she explains, “so I think when [the judges] had the choice to get me out, they took me out.”

She continued to explain her point of view, saying “Other than that, I can’t come up with any other reason they would have chosen me to go home.”

“Since day one I haven’t gotten any bad critiques. Except for ‘Landslide,’ and that was just bad... it was self-explanatory. It wasn’t... my style. I wasn’t in my element. Last week, when I sang ‘I Love Rock & Roll,’ it was predictable. It was a really hard week for me. I chose that song two days before the live show, and it was really hard to make that song my own.”

So, how’s she coming to terms with it now? “I mean, it’s kind of hard to realize and figure out ‘why me?’ when so many people have had such high hopes for me. It’s really shocking.”